Developmental dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty affecting the acquisition of elementary mathematical skills, such as:
- Quantity processing (e.g. estimating the number of spectators in a stadium)
- Calculation (e.g. solving ‘53-14=39’ without paper)
- Arithmetic facts (e.g. the multiplication table)
- Geometrical reasoning (e.g. comparing the angles of a triangle).
Children with dyscalculia struggle in these domains, despite intellectual ability, typical neurological development, and strong educational opportunity.
- Dyscalculia affects 3-6% of the population, similar to dyslexia.
- Low numeracy is associated with poor financial well-being.
- Improvement by one standard deviation in math proficiency translates into a 12% increase in wages.
Our Specific Aims
We are establishing a new Math Neuroscience and Education Program within the UCSF Dyslexia Center in order to better understand, prevent, and alleviate math difficulties. This program has three main goals:
- Identify children at risk for math learning differences before elementary school.
- Discover the neural bases of diffrent subtypes of dyscalculia.
- Develop neuroscience-based interventions specifically tailored to individual profiles.